Most conventional child safety gates are constructed with an inflexible outer frame structure having rigid horizontal and vertical members to support the rigid, structural integrity of such frame. Since safety is the primary concern and purpose of such child safety gates, ease of installation, potential damage caused to walls, banisters, and railings, and aesthetic appearance are all secondary considerations that are often sacrificed. Conventional rigid-framed gates are often difficult to install and equally difficult to disassemble and remove or relocate. Furthermore, conventional rigid-framed gates require drilling into the walls and wooden banisters, or in the alternative, require tedious assembly of clumsy wooden or plastic faceplates that are then hinged to the existing stairway rails as a means of attaching the safety gate. Furthermore, conventional rigid-framed child safety gates are not easily installed or used at the bottom of stairwells—particularly stairwells having custom decorative stairway posts, banisters, or balusters, which typically have vertically varying diameters and configurations, are non-parallel relative to each other, are non-perpendicular relative to flooring surface or are otherwise asymmetrical, or are very wide (i.e., horizontally-spaced apart at the bottom of the stairs). Typical child safety gates often leave large gaps between the safety gate and the stairway railing in which a small child may become trapped or wedged while attempting to wiggle through such a gap.
A number of US patents and applications have been issued or published in the art of child safety barriers. For example:
(a) U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,194, entitled “Safety Barrier for Small Children,” issued to Jeffrey M. Langan on Aug. 1, 1989, discloses a barrier or safety guard for preventing the escape of small children from a safe area, having as its basic element a panel of flexible material, preferably in the form of netting with relatively small apertures therein. A border of flexible material is provided for the periphery of the panel and has a plurality of spaced openings around the entire periphery of the panel. These openings are provided with grommets and a plurality of ties or laces by which the borders of the panel can be fastened to points on the supporting structure. The panel can be folded in either or both dimensions to adjust its size to smaller dimensions. Small sub-panels can be used to prevent the main panel from being dislodged.
(b) U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,674, entitled “Adjustable Passage Gate,” issued to Timothy T. Terril on Apr. 8, 1997, discloses an adjustable passageway gate that includes a thin generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped panel, a large, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension member, a pair of small, spaced-apart, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension members, an elongated and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped cross member, and a bolt. The thin generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped panel is positioned on one side of a wall. The large, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension member and the pair of small, spaced-apart, extendable, retractable, and generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped extension members are extendable to contact the wall when the passageway of the wall is wider than the thin generally rectangular-parallelepiped-shaped panel.
(c) U.S. Pat. No. 6,470,948, entitled “Safety Gate,” issued to Robert Yates on Oct. 19, 2002, discloses a collapsible, child safety gate for selectively forming a barrier across an opening inside a house such as a stairwell, and includes a storage housing capable of being fixed in position across the house opening, either permanently or temporarily and a folding curtain, which can be stored in the storage housing when folded and which can be withdrawn therefrom along guide tracks to an extended position for forming a barrier across the opening.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,787,174, entitled “Child Safety Gate,” issued to Tyrone Brown on Nov. 28, 1988, discloses a sturdy, effective, and economical portable barrier designed safely to restrain and protect babies, toddlers, and pets. The safety barrier comprises spring-biased decorative panels, which expand to securely engage a door frame and contract to a compact compressed position.
U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2006/0042163 A1, entitled “Baby Gate,” filed by Allen S. Nitz on Aug. 27, 2004, discloses a gate assembly for selectively opening and closing a passageway and includes opposed sides defined by a pair of newel posts. The gate assembly includes a gate, first and second mounting assemblies, and a pair of hinges. Each mounting assembly includes a mount face plate, a backing plate, and a plurality of fasteners for mounting the face plate to one of the posts. The hinges define a hinge axis and couple the gate to the first mounting assembly face plate and permit pivotal movement of the gate about the hinge axis between first and second open positions and through a closed position through an arc of about 270 degrees. The gate is substantially parallel to the face plate when in the closed position. A caster wheel is coupled with the bottom of the gate in order to facilitate pivotal movement of the gate and to inhibit undesired forces on the hinges.
U.S. Patent Publication No. US 2006/0180284 A1, entitled “Child Safety Gate,” filed by Katherine Wiggins on Feb. 15, 2005, discloses a child safety gate comprised of a rigid frame structure including a pair of transversely spaced rigid upright frame legs and an intermediate leg positioned at right angles to the upright frame legs, a flexible gate member having means securing the gate member in unitary assembly with the rigid frame structure, and a pair of flexible strap-like adjustable hinges secured to the transversely spaced rigid upright frame legs for securing the flexible adjustable foldable hinges to stairway posts. Each of the flexible adjustable hinges is comprised of a flexible top strip piece having a cushioned non-slip fabric layer secured on an inside surface and each of the strip pieces and the cushioned non-slip fabric layer are sized, shaped and positioned for assembled contact with upright stairway posts to present slipping of the straps; thereby, keeping the gate firmly position and to avoid scratching of the upright stairway posts when attached to the upright stairway posts.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,792, entitled “Child Safety Barriers,” issued to Robert D. Monahan on Feb. 20, 2007, discloses a child safety gate including a flexible barrier that is retractable into a housing and extendable across a passageway to inhibit passage by a child. An electrically operable extension lock solenoid inhibits barrier extension until activated by a parent. The gate includes a motion sensor, a night light, a child monitor, and an interactive audio-visual display.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,437,115, entitled “Security Gate Apparatus,” issued to T. Brent Freese on Aug. 1, 1995, discloses a security gate apparatus for attachment across an opening defined by first and second vertical surfaces, including a first gate panel and a second gate panel slidingly connected to the first gate panel so as to permit horizontal extension and retraction of the gate apparatus to a desired horizontal dimension. A first vertical leg is pivotably attached to an outer vertical member of the first gate panel by a first link means and a second vertical leg is pivotably connected to an outer vertical member of the second gate panel by a second link means. The security gate apparatus also includes means for locking the first and second gate panels in the desired horizontal dimension and at least one contact pad on a surface of the first and second vertical legs opposite the outer vertical members of the first and second gate panels, respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,258, entitled “Folding Soft Gate,” issued to Keith L. Poulson on Jul. 2, 1996, discloses a security gate for positioning within an area way such as a doorway. The gate includes a support structure defined by a frame and a flexible panel supported by the frame. The frame includes horizontal members and vertical members wherein the vertical members may be conveniently folded to a position parallel to the horizontal members whereby the gate is folded to a compact configuration for transportation or storage.
While these patents and published applications teach the general concept of barricades or gates used to contain children and small pets within a room or off stairs, they do not teach a frameless, adjustable-width, horizontally-flexible but vertically-rigid barrier that can be easily, securely, and removably installed at the bottom of a stair case or stair well from banister to banister or wall to banister without damaging either the structural integrity or decorative finish of ornamentally designed wooden banisters, balusters, rails, or posts.
Although conventional gates may be somewhat satisfactory in preventing the ingress and egress of small children and pets through doorways and onto stairway passages, particularly at the top of a stairway, there remains is a tremendous need for an adjustable-width stairwell barrier comprised of a planar, frameless, horizontally-flexible but vertically-rigid barrier that can be easily, securely, and removably installed at the bottom of any one of a plurality of stairwells having a wide range of possible widths and intended to prevent children and pets from going up the stairs. There is a need for such a barrier that is visually attractive and aesthetically pleasing—particularly in modern, elegant homes having high-end, custom stairway posts, spindles, balusters, and banisters. There is a need for such a barrier that is capable of widening and selectively expanding to fit securely across a variety of stairwell configurations, particularly from banister to banister or wall to banister. Additionally, there is a need for such a flexible barrier that will not damage the stairway posts, balusters, spindles, and banisters. Furthermore, there is a need for a stair barrier that can attached between banisters or from a wall to a banister in which the banister or post has a variable size or shape as it extends from the floor to the railing (e.g., hand rail), when the stair barrier needs to extend across the bottom of the stairs in an angled or asymmetrical manner, or such that the bottom of the barrier is not parallel to the flooring surface. Furthermore, there is a need for an improved flexible stair barrier that can be customized in style and appearance and that has the practical attribute of being washable, easy to remove, and easy to transport or carry to different locations.
The present invention provides a non-obvious solution to all of the above problems and challenges.
Further advantages of the methods and systems described herein will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings and detailed description which follows.